The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1887-02-22
MAUNA LoA's SUMMIT.
a Visit to Makuaweoweo.

KAPAPALA, KAU, HAWAII, Feb. II, 81.
EDITOR GAZETTE.-The erst fountain of fire
playing above Kahuku, which visited Jan.
18th, found to be, per aneroid, 5000 feet
above sea level, while Pele Kahuku, or the
upper Mauna Loa out-crop of this same
fountain, l found to be, per arenoid, II, SOC
feet; reaching 1t, as / did, Feb: 9Th.
This last, Pele Kahuku, (which l so name
to designate it, is a hssure in the very
ancient "a of the mountain side so ancient
as to have been changed by disintegration
into friable brick and brick dust;-the fssure
in question being some Il of a mile in length
and the line of it pointing directly from the
top of Mauna Loa to Hale Pahoehoe, (other-
wise called Keau Hid where the fow proper
broke out and ran wholly above ground.
Along this assure were issuing, when l was
there, heat steam and sulphurous smoke, and
the margin of it coated with sulphurous de-
posits and good deal of pure sulphur; while
on either side of 1t was O width of fresh,
crumpled pahoehoe, showing the recent issu-
ance thereat, of liquid fire. The crack re-
hill and even cut into the base of it, so that
to follow the line of rent, one had to mount
up the side of the hill. From this upper
emergence TO the surface of the Kahuku
flow of 1887, was an unobstructed view of the
cone, with its associate cones, 10 or 20 miles
makai, near or at which spectators at the
Kahuku Ranch, beheld that column of LIQUID
redness, which kept itself high in the air for
some IA days. Standing by this upper rent,
the beholder perceives at glance, from Pele
Kahuku above to Hale Pahoehoe below, the
liquid fire pursued a subterranean channel.
Pele Kahuku and Pohakuohanalei are at
almost the same altitude and distant from
each other only mile or so. Pele Kahuku
begins mile more or less, much to the west
or towards Kona from Pohakuohanalei.
Mokuaweoweo was heavily smoking in the
central portion of it, as found on reaching
it Feb. 10th. A rent or chasm having formed
in the floor of the crater, which beginning
near the middle of the floor, extended to-
wards, and disappeared under the west
ern wall: the general line of the chasm being
in the direction of Kahuku, and the chasm
itself margined by fresh pahoehoe, which
appeared to have been spit up from below,
creating in one place a small cone. Mokua-
weoweo, altitude 13, 500 feet $50 said aneroid)
Pele Kahuku II 800 feet and Hale Pahoehoe
(Keau Hill $500 feet, appeared to have been
the three points where the Mauna Loa lava
flow of 1887 forsook its subterranean viadaet
and betook itself to the earth's surface.
The winter 1 encountered in upper Mauna
Loa was simply terrible. Striking snow, as
l did, at an altitude of IL 900 feet | traversed
an unbroken stretch of snow, of from II
to Is miles in length and breadth. Deep, l
can tell you; in some places 20 feet in others
~ 1eet, IN otherS one loot, IN others still
having no depth at all, (lava outcropping);
the general or average depth being about
three feet-the crust of it kindly bore up the
exulting pedestrian, who made good time as
he skinned over the surface of it. o We New
England boys who love sliding down hill, Il,
one of theml and Canadians who love tobos-
gaming, HE We to the summit of Mauna Loa
and take thence a 10 mile slide southwards
from, say, Mokuaweoweo to Pohakuohanalei,
only bringing up at ths snow line upon the
sharp and terrible "a, would ye find your
selves essentially damaged at last.
EDWARD p. BAKER.